[Featured image: Senior Airman Duane Hackney is awarded the Air Force Cross – the U.S. military’s second-highest award for combat valor]
1787: Representatives of the French and U.S. governments sign the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance in Paris. France recognizes the United States as an independent nation and provides much-needed military aid.
1802: Congress authorizes President Thomas Jefferson to arm U.S. ships to defend against Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean.
1832: Marines and sailors aboard the USS Potomac (the first of five so-named ships) attack pirates from the village of Quallah Batoo, Sumatra (present-day Indonesia) following the massacre of a U.S. merchant vessel in February 1831.
1862: In northwestern Tennessee, a Union Naval flotilla commanded by Flag Officer (a temporary rank which soon is replaced by the grade of Commodore) Andrew H. Foote and a force commanded by Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant converge upon Fort Henry. The plan is for Foote’s warships and Grant’s troops to attack simultaneously, but heavy rains and water from the swollen Tennessee River force the Confederates to surrender the flooding fort to Foote before Grant can arrive. The capture of the poorly engineered Fort Henry is the first major Union victory of the Civil War.
Ulysses S. Grant, the first serving full general (four stars) in U.S. military history, and the author’s many-times-great-grandfather
1945: Army Air Force B-24 and B-29 bombers begin attacking Iwo Jima in preparation for the upcoming landing. Believing that the massive Naval and aerial bombardments have wiped out most of the island’s defenders, Adm. Chester Nimitz says “Well, this will be easy. The Japanese will surrender Iwo Jima without a fight.” What the American war planners don’t know that the Japanese have dug some 11 miles of tunnels on the island, including an elaborate network of underground command centers and barracks, pill boxes, and bunkers.
1967: In North Vietnam’s Mu Gia Pass, Airman Second Class Duane D. Hackney volunteers to be lowered from a HH-3E “Jolly Green Giant” rescue helicopter into the jungle – despite the presence of enemy forces – to locate a downed pilot. The Pararescueman comes up empty on the first attempt, but finds the pilot on a second sortie. During the flight home, the helicopter is hit by ant-aircraft fire. Hackney gives the pilot his own parachute, then looks for another for himself. Before Hackney can strap on the chute, the “Jolly Green” is hit again, forcing the crew to jump.
For his actions, Hackney becomes the first living recipient of the Air Force Cross. He will go on to become the highest awarded enlisted man in Air Force history, earning 28 decorations for combat valor.
